I want to count how long the pulse was in progress and I try to do it with automation:
When status changes to in progress, start time tracking. When it changes to anything stop.

But I see that time tracking turns on for a couple of seconds and then turns off…

In this case I understand that I need to use automation: When status changes to in progress, start time tracking.
And for all other statuses (I have 9) add automation: When status changes to something, stop time tracking.

In my opinion it is not very convenient… and it would be cool to have automation like: When status changes to something, start time tracking. When it changes to anything else stop.

I will be sure to pass this feedback along to our automation team. With that being said, for feedback purposes what happens if you set when status changes to anything start and do the same for the stop. Does this still cause the same stop?

Thank you so much for sharing this. It makes so much sense and I see what is happening. I will be sure to pass along this feedback to our team for review.

What I do believe is happening is that working on it counts as anything for the second automation and stops the time tracker immediately.

What are the chances you can make “stop” automations for all of the different labels that this can be changed to? Although this adds more automations, it should act like the “anything” scenario you want, while preventing it from stopping when selecting working on it.